Planting of vegetation in rough terrain has long been a difficult and tedious process. In fact, most planting done on steep embankments or rocky terrain has been accomplished by hand, because mechanized planters are often not capable of negotiating the terrain. Further, bulky planting machinery can damage the surrounding area and seriously compromise the surrounding habitat.
Hand planting in steep, rocky, or otherwise rough terrain is often not successful because the conditions do not permit the planter to dig deep enough to secure the plants. Also riparian areas are typically difficult to plant because the plant stock cannot be secured deeply in the embankment to prevent high water from washing the plants away.
Re-planting vegetation along riparian ways that have been denuded by flooding is ecologically desirable, not only to bolster the shorelines against erosion, but also to re-establish fish and wildlife habitat. Still, it is difficult and sometimes seemingly impossible to successfully plant such areas. Shallow rooted whips of willow, cottonwood and the like are easily washed away at high water, or become easy forage for beaver and deer, so strenuous hand planting operations in such areas do not often result in an acceptable percentage of surviving plants.
Even flat fertile areas can be difficult to re-plant. For example, closely spaced stumps in clear cut areas will often prevent the use of mechanized planting, so expensive hand planting is often the only process available. Further, the planting media may be bound with roots, rocks, or hard soil, frustrating hand planting processes.
Another problem faced in mechanized and hand planting operations, is that planting dibbles, shovels, picks and the like will often leave a hole with a packed wall caused by the tool wedging into the soil. This “shear wall” will hamper proper dispersal of roots and often results in poor or unsuccessful growth.
A present and growing need is therefore realized for a mechanized planter that will reduce, if not eliminate, the need for hand planting in difficult areas. There is also a need for a mechanized planter that will function to plant at a much greater depth than has yet been feasible in hand or mechanized planting operations, without creating the “shear wall” effect.
A need has also remained to reduce the need for an attendant to load a planter in a “single shot” style by which a single plant is hand fed to the planter and the planting operation must take place before another plant is hand fed to the planter for a subsequent planting cycle.
A need also exists for soil packing about the individual plants following retraction of the planting device. Packing firms soil around the plant to provide physical support and reduce exposure of the root area to air.
As a solution to the above problems, the present planter can be attached to an excavator boom for remote operation at various angles to the surrounding terrain, so difficult terrain can be planted from adjacent accessible areas.
The present planter may be attached to the bucket end of an excavator boom and used by the excavator operator for deep planting operations that are best used for plants such as whips (tree cuttings) or root crop (such as tree seedlings) in a manner intended to avoid wash out and damage from animals. Such planting may be done at locations in a radius from the excavator (within the boom reach) in terrain that would not be otherwise accessible to other mechanized planters.
A magazine feed may be provided to feed a succession of plants to the planter and thereby minimize the need for the planter to be moved from plant site to loading site after each planting operation. Instead, a plurality of plants may be loaded, then fed successively to the planter such that numerous planting operations may take place before reloading is required.